On Friday at about 6 pm one of the personnel of the State Security Forces in the Gashki Base in Kamyaran threw a large stone at a young Kurd man which led to a brain concussion.According to reports, Parviz Qorbani from the village of Bezush in Kamyaran was a driver who carried tomatoes from the fields in this area. When he was passing by the Gashki Base, a security agent threw a large stone at his head under the pretext that he did not stop his car.This young Kurd man is currently in a coma in a hospital ICU.

A prisoner in the Central Orumieh Prison was sentenced to the inhumane sentence of amputation by branch 102 of the Public Orumieh Court.According to reports, the sentence for the amputation of four right hand fingers of Seifoddin Salehi from Baneh on charges of armed robbery was issued.This 60 year old prison has been detained in the Orumieh Central Prison for three years now.

The Iran Medical Sciences University was shut down not upon the suggestion of medical science universities, students or the Ministry of Hygiene and Sanitation but with the announcement of the Human Advisor of the Presidential Office which was a great shock to students in this university.Students of the nursing and obstetrician schools gathered in protest in the campus of this university after hearing that their university had been disbanded. Riot police have surrounded the central university building located in the Hemat Highway in Tehran.

Twenty three prisoners convicted of possessing narcotics were hanged in secret without the knowledge or presence of their lawyers and families and without their own prior knowledge.In the ongoing process of the execution of hundreds of narcotics convicts in Vakil Abad Prison in Mashhad, 23 people were hanged in two rounds of executions on October 5 and October 12.According to this report, on October 5, 13 prisoners and on October 12, 10 prisoners were hanged in a mass execution without prior announcement. These executions are carried out without following the official rules of the Islamic Republic of Iran and due process. A number of former prisoners in this prison have said that these hanged convicts were forced to confess under pressure and torture.The executed prisoners were gathered from their cellblocks only a few hours before their execution and were taken to the execution hallway which is on the entrance of the visiting hall and were hanged in one row.

According to reports, Tehran Prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolat Abadi and his deputy Reshteh Ahmadi have been putting pressure on and threatening normal female prisoners for having contacts with political prisoners.

In the past few days, 27 year old Raheleh Zakayi, who is detained in Evin Prison was taken to Evin Court for having contacts with political female prisoners in this prison and was interrogated and threatened for several hours. She was threatened that fresh criminal records would be made against her. A person by the name of Reshteh Ahmadi who introduced himself as the Tehran Prosecutor Deputy accused her of having contacts with the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran and propagating against the government. The Tehran Prosecutor also told Zakayi that she was a monafeqh (meaning hypocrite used by the regime to address PMOI members and supporters).

Zakayi has been interrogated three times, each time for several hours.She was arrested in 2002 by agents of the Intelligence Agency while she was a 19 year old mother of a one year old child along with her father and her maternal uncles. She was detained for six months in a solitary cell in the State Security Forces Intelligence Center in Mashhad where she was under mental and physical pressure and torture.Father was tortured in front of daughter and daughter in front of father so that they would confess to participating in an armed robbery. She was banned from seeing her child and family in this time.

She was trialed after 6 months of solitary cell by Judge Qarouni in the 19th branch of the Mashhad Court and was sentenced to 4 years of prison. She was then transferred to Vakil Abad Prison in Mashhad and was detained in the drug addicts’ cellblock, which is one of the most dangerous cellblocks in prison, instead of being sent to a cellblock for younger prisoners.

Raheleh was treated violently in that cellblock and became an addict herself. She was near the end of her prison term when she was tried again and sentenced to 8 years of prison. She was sent to the Sabzevar Prison after serving her four years of prison and was jailed there for one year. This young prisoner was then transferred to Evin Prison where she made contacts with political prisoners and quit narcotics with their help.After her relationship with political prisoners increased she was sent to Khorin Prison in Varamin which resembles Kahrizak Detention Center because of its inhumane conditions and was transferred back to Evin after a year.

Raheleh Zakayi continued her relationship with political prisoners in Evin Prison after she came back. She was separated from them and was isolated and sent to cellblock 3 in this prison.

Her child who was one years old when his/her mother was arrested is now 9 but is deprived of a birth certificate and identification documents and lives without a legal identity. He/she has problems in going to school but the judiciary prevents his/her legal problems from being solved.

Payam Heidar Qazvini was expelled from university and was banned from continuing his education in all universities for three years.Qazvini, who was in his last semester in the International Khomeini University in Qazvin, is the former head of a reformist student association in this university. His expulsion sentence, which was recently issued by the University Review Committee, is the heaviest sentence that has been issued in this university after the events of the 2009 presidential elections.This is while this student activist was banned from entering this university since last semester and had not even gone to university for the last 9 months.Payam Heidar Qazvini had been arrested twice in post-election events by security forces in Qazvin and is currently waiting for his court sentence.

Human rights activist Parisa Kakayi was sentenced to six years of prison by the 26th branch of the Revolutionary Court headed by Pir Abbasi.She was sentenced to five years of prison for ‘assembling and conspiring with the intention of disrupting national security’ and one year of prison for ‘propagating against the government’.According to reports, her trial was held on October 18.Kakayi was arrested on January 1, 2010 after being summoned to the Intelligence Agency and was released from Evin Prion on February 17

The head of the Azarbaijan security police said that 3,829 people were arrested this year for various charges including ‘participating in mixed gender camping trips’.The head of the Public Security Police in Western Azarbaijan said that this year 3,829 people were arrested for having what he called ‘public manifestations of corruption’.“These people who were arrested for the reason I mentioned mostly committed crimes such as participating in mixed camping trips, being active in gangs smuggling narcotics and satellite equipment, and bothering women on the streets”, he said.“These criminals were arrested so that criminal cases could be made for them and so that could get to the roots of this issue”.

In an attack against prisoners in cellblock 4 of Gohardasht Prison in Karaj, political prisoner Mohammad Ali Mansouri was thrown in a solitary cell.According to reports in line with the plan to deal with the letters and statements written by prisoners, the prison guards raided cellblock 4 in Gohardasht Prison and conducted a search of all the prisoners’ personal belongings. In this search, Mansouri’s diary was seized and he was transferred to a solitary cell in the Sepah Cellblock.Ali Mansouri was arrested on September 2, 2009 and was sentenced to 17 years of prison for having contacts to a dissident group.

HRAIn an attack against prisoners in cellblock 4 of Gohardasht Prison in Karaj, political prisoner Mohammad Ali Mansouri was thrown in a solitary cell.According to reports in line with the plan to deal with the letters and statements written by prisoners, the prison guards raided cellblock 4 in Gohardasht Prison and conducted a search of all the prisoners’ personal belongings. In this search, Mansouri’s diary was seized and he was transferred to a solitary cell in the Sepah Cellblock.Ali Mansouri was arrested on September 2, 2009 and was sentenced to 17 years of prison for having contacts to a dissident group

The 28th branch of the Revolutionary Court presided by Judge Moghiseh has sentenced Mahsa Amrabadi to the maximum sentence for anti-regime propaganda through reports and interviews.

According to Aftab, Amrabadi was detained in June of last year after the presidential elections and was later released on a $200,000 bail. She was charged with anti-regime propaganda and insulting the president. She was acquitted from the latter charge.

Masoud Bastani, her husband, has been in detention for the past year and the court has sentenced him to 6 years in prison and fined him $36,000.

Hossein Ronaghi-Maleki was told that he has been sentenced to 15 years in jail. This announcement was made to him without the presence of his lawyers or the presiding judge Pir Abbasi, by Mr. Sattari, the court clerk in charge of the Revolutionary Court’s Branch number 26, who forced Ronaghi-Maleki to sign and accept the rendered sentence.

Hossein Ronaghi-Maleki (a.k.a Babak Khorramdin) ﻿was arrested along with his brother Hassan Ronaghi-Maleki on the December 13th, 2009 in the city of Malekan near Tabriz and transferred to Evin prison. According to RAHANA, during his 10 months in prison, Ronaghi- Maleki, a web blogger and human rights activist was exposed to both physical and psychological torture at Evin’s ward 2A, with the hope to obtain a forced confession and television interview.

As a result of Ronaghi-Maleki’s refusal to confess to the crimes published in Keyhan newspaper this past March, interrogators and the judges in charge of his case file increased pressure on this web blogger keeping him in solitary confinement under the supervision of the IRGC forces. His brother Hassan Ronaghi-Maleki was released on 75,000 USD bail, after one month incarceration and enduring extreme torture. During his time in jail he was repeatedly taken to interrogation rooms together with his brother. Hassan was repeatedly beaten and mistreated in order to force his brother Hossein into cooperation.

The following is an account of the illegal and arbitrary actions of the judicial authorities in the Islamic Revolutionary Court with regards to Hossein Ronaghi-Maleki and his case file in the past month that culminated in a heavy 15 year prison sentence. On October 2010, Hossein Ronaghi-Maleki was taken to Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court and without the presence of his lawyers sentence to 15 years in prison.

On Monday Hossein Ronaghi-Maleki contacted his home and informed his family thathe had been taken to court with out the presence of his lawyers or judge PirAbbasi, the judge presiding over his case. Hossein stated that Mr. Sattari, thecourt clerk was present and informed Hossein that he should have been sentencedto death and that indeed he had initially been given the death sentence, but thejudiciary officials decided to change the verdict to a prison sentence instead.In his telephone conversation with his family Ronaghi-Maleki added: “Mr.Sattari, did not allow for my lawyer to be present and said that I need todismiss my lawyer if I don’t want to be punished even further. After renderingthe sentence, he beat me, pressured me and forced me to sign the court document.He didn’t even allow me to read the sentence and forced me to sign it withoutreading out the verdict to me. Things are so bad nowadays that the court clerkhas the power to act independently. It is truly regretful.” Ronaghi- Maleki’ssentence was handed down without presenting any evidence of the supposed crimeshe was accused of. It looks as though mere accusations and false informationpresented by the IRGC were sufficient to sentence this innocent web blogger.Moreover, Mr. Sattari the court clerk incharge of branch 26 of the RevolutionaryCourt stated: “Since Hossein Ronaghi-Maleki has not accepted the charges he hasbeen accused of and has refused to give an interview and confess to his crimes,we decided to give him an even harsher sentence. Had he confessed to his crimes,his sentence would have been reduced.” Sattari had previously toldRonaghi-Maleki’s mother that “Hossein should have been executed but we gave hima break!”

After spending 10 months in solitary confinement and enduringextensive pressure and torture by prison guards, Hossein Ronaghi-Maleki wasinitially taken to branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court on August 15th, presidedby Judge Pir Abbasi. On that day a 28,000 USD bail was set for his release.Though Ronaghi-Maleki’s family provided the court with the bail amount and thebail was recorded by the court, Ronaghi-Maleki was nevertheless still notreleased from prison. When his family approached branch 26 of the RevolutionaryCourt, they were informed by Mr. Sattari that the bail had been denied and thathis prison sentence had been extended until September 18th, 2010. When Hossein’sfamily inquired as to the reason behind this decision, Mr. Sattari respondedthat the IRGC had sent them a letter requesting that bail be denied and that aprison sentence be reinstated instead. Mr. Sattari had added that a report fromthe city of Malekan’s Intelligence office had also been received, calling forthe cancellation of Ronaghi-Maleki’s bail and the reinstatement of the prisonsentence. In addition, Sattari stated that the Malekan city council had alsofiled a report against Ronaghi-Maleki and his father and as such he would haveto remain in custody. After bail was canceled and a prison sentence reinstated,Hossein Ronaghi-Maleki was once again taken to Branch 26 of the RevolutionaryCourt on August 21st presided by Judge Pir Abbasi. His lawyer, Mr. Dadkhah waspresent on that day and presented an official complaint to the court about theillegal nature in which bail had been denied and a jail sentence reinstated.Even though, his lawyer Mr. Dadkhah presented this legal complaint to branch 26,unfortunately on September 15th, it became evident that the written complaintfiled by Ronaghi-Maleki and his lawyer had been removed from his case file. Onthis same date, Ronaghi-Maleki told Judge Pir Abbasi: “I endured extremephysical pain and torture at the hands of my interrogators. They pressured meand tortured me in order to force me to accept the false accusations.”

Judge Pir Abbasi’s response to Hossein Ronaghi-Maleki was asfollows: “The interrogators did as they were told. We gave them the orders totorture you. You deserved it and we will continue to tell them to torture you.”It was around the same time that Hossein’s mother contacted Mr. Sattari thelegal clerk at Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court and complained about thetorture both his son Hassan and Hossein had endured at the hands of theinterrogators. In response to her complaint, Mr. Sattari had said: “We cantorture or kill anyone we want to and no one has the right to complain, or sayanything to us!”

The individuals who have put extreme pressure onHossein Ronaghi-Maleki and his family in the past 10 months, seeking to inflictan heavier sentence that 15 years prison for Ronaghi-Maleki are as follows:Judge Pir Abbasi, the judge presiding over branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court,Mr. Sattari, the court clerk and head of branch 26, his brother who was one ofHossein Ronaghi-Maleki’s interrogators, a person by the name of “Eslami” incharge of the Revolutionary Court’s archives, Parviz Sohrabi, IntelligenceOfficer, Parviz Alipour, commander of the Maragheh Information and resident ofMalekan. The unjust acts committed by these individuals include the arrest ofHassan Ronaghi-Maleki, Hossein’s brother, who was beaten so severely that therewere injuries to his neck and spine, threats to arrest his other family membersincluding his father, demanding a multi million Touman bribe in order to releaseRonaghi-Maleki, to name a few. It is also worth mentioning that the 15 yearsentence handed down to Hossein Ronaghi-Maleki has not yet been officiallycommunicated to his lawyers.

On Tuesday, the security forces raided the Gohardasht Prison and transferred Mohamamd Ali Manosuri to an unknown location after searching the prisoners.

According to the reports received by RAHANA, there is a possibility that he has been transferred to the solitary confinement unit of Ward 1 of the Gohardasht Prison and there are concerns that he may be under pressure and torture.

He was detained on September 2, 2009. For the first 3 months of his detention, he was held under psychological and physical pressure in solitary confinement and was banned from telephone calls or prison visits with his family.

His trial was held after 10 months and he was tried for Moharebeh (waging war against God). After one year of imprisonment, he was sentenced to 17 years in prison and exile to the Rajaei Shahr Prison

The Appeals Court had upheld the 33 month imprisonment sentence and the 75 lashes for Ashura detainee Seyyed Navid Kamran last week.

According to JARS, Judge Pirabbas, the presiding judge of the 26th branch of the Revolutionary Court, had issued the verdict. Kamran was informed of the court’s decision after being summoned to the Shahid Moghaddas Prosecutor’s Office a few days ago.

He was charged with conspiracy and participating in gatherings in order to commit crimes against national security, and disturbing the public order. During last year’s presidential elections, Kamran was an activist for the website of “Association of Mousavi Supporters.” The group’s name was later changed to the “Association of Green Movement Supporters.”

Hadi Hakim-Shafaei, a post- election detainee, has been sentenced to 3 years in prison for insulting the Supreme Leader and acting against national security by the 2nd branch of the Revolutionary Court.

According to JARS, the 4th branch of the Northern Khorasan Appeals Court presided by Judge Pirzargari acquitted him from acting against national security and reduced the sentence to one year in prison.

According to the summons order, he will be transferred to the Bojnourd Prison in 3 days.

Baha’i citizen Farid Rohani who was detained following the Ashura protests, has been summoned to the Revolutionary Court on December 11th.

According to the Committee of Human Rights Reporters, Rohani was detained on December 3rd along with a number of other Baha’i citizens and was temporary released on bail on February 28th. He had been confined in Evin Prison for the first 10 days of his detention and was subsequently transferred to the Rajaei Shahr Prison.

His charges include acting against national security, blasphemy, disturbing public order and supplying propaganda material for foreigners.

His workplace has been confiscated since his release. It seems that the Intelligence Ministry has ordered the action.

The dissolution of Iran's University of Medical Sciences was a great shock to all the students attending this university. Upon hearing the news students from the Nursing & Midwifery School gathered this morning in order to protest the dissolution of their university.Considering the implosion state of the Iranian regime specially after International sanctions imposed on the hierarchy of the regime (Iranian revolutionary guards and top officials) and the fear spreading amongst suppressive ranks of the near future of the regime, such acts are under way and are considered as a gesture of resistance under different pretexts.

In the last month, 39 individuals have been detained with political charges, amongst them are four women who were arrested during the raid by the Security Forces on the house of one of the Grieving Mothers.According to RAHANA, there are also nine leaders of the Freedom Movement (Nehzat Azadi) who were arrested in a funeral in Esfehan.Two German citizens, reporters of a popular weekly German news magazine, Bild Am Sonntag, who were trying to hold an interview with the Son of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the prisoner sentenced to stoning, were also detained.To download a pdf list of the detainees go to :http://www.rahana.org/wp-content/uploads/1389/1389-7-bazdasht.pdf

October 27, 2010 – Mahin Saremi, wife of death row prisoner Mohammad Ali Saremi, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that she is asking for help from international human rights organizations to save her husband’s life, as he has committed no crime other than being a Mojahedin-e Khalgh (MEK) sympathizer. She emphasized that though her husband has been told about his death sentence several times, the ruling has not been served in writing yet.

Mohammad Ali Saremi is a political prisoner sentenced to death following post-election protests in 2009 due to his relationship with the MEK. Though his sentence has been announced by government sources, it has not been officially presented to his lawyer. Among all those sentenced to death for having relations with the MEK, Saremi is the only prisoner who accepted his charge. Mahin Saremi spoke with the Campaign about her husband’s relationship with the MEK, “How can a person be executed for his beliefs? Yes, my husband had sympathy for the MEK, but can a person be hung because he likes a political group? His activities were limited to going to grave sites of people who shared his way of thinking and reading prayers for them.

“Once we also went to see our son at Camp Ashraf [in Iraq] in 2005. A short time after our return we were arrested and my husband spent a year in prison. A few months later he was arrested on charges of participating in ceremonies commemorating the 19th anniversary of the mass executions of political prisoners in 1988. But I don’t know why he suddenly received the death sentence last year after the elections,” said Saremi.

“Three days after Ashura [27 December 2009], an officer went to my husband’s prison ward and told him that he has been sentenced to death, but my husband refused to receive the ruling, asking them to serve it to his lawyer. But his lawyer has not yet been served. Several times during public appearances, authorities have announced my husband’s death sentence, and have even announced that the Appeals Court upheld the sentence, but when we went to request a reconsideration of the sentencing, they asked us for a photocopy of the original ruling before they would take action on our request. We didn’t have the ruling, so we wrote letters, requesting a reduction in sentence, but whenever we go to follow up on it, they say our response has not yet arrived,” said Mahin Saremi.

“I expect [human rights organizations] to help us. My husband must be released because he has not done anything. Seeing my son cannot be a crime, but he served a whole year in prison for it. People shouldn’t die for their beliefs. I would like to ask the organizations to try so that my husband does not get convicted at all. He really does not deserve to be in prison or be executed,” said Saremi about what she expects of human rights organizations.

“I see him every 15 days. Thank God he is not in bad shape, but he is in prison after all and his conditions can’t be good,” said Saremi about her husband’s physical and psychological condition.

Mahin Saremi, herself, is also awaiting her sentence, since she was arrested with her husband twice before. “I was also interrogated for having gone to Ashraf. I was also arrested at the grave site with my husband and was released on bail,” she said.

October 28, 2010 - A group of political prisoners in Evin wrote a statement addressing the judiciary and prison authorities about Hengameh Shahidi’s freedom.

According to Daneshjoo News the statement addresses the callous and inhumane methods used against political prisoners to pressure and humiliate them. The following is the joint statement written by Mahdieh Golroo, Bahareh Hedayat, Atefeh Nabavi, and other political prisoners:

We said grief is sitting in our belliesSecrets are shared with inmates in metaphorsWe can see that, except for the mirror, no friends remain.

These days it seems like unfair and heavy sentences, imprisonment, lashes, exile for political, civil, and human rights activists are not enough for this hateful vengeance.

They diligently continue to harass the prisoners who are serving unfair sentences. Unfortunately they take every immoral and offensive action to pursue their goals.

It looks like depriving political prisoners of their basic human rights such as health, nutrition, visitation, and segregation is not enough. They take advantage of the lack of experience of some prisoners by inflicting mental and psychological pressures on them to cause divisions. They have coerced a few prisoners to act against their will and have turned them into informers who have created files against their fellow inmates.

We, a group of prisoners in the female ward of Evin, not only declare our disapproval and condemnation of these ugly and inhumane acts, but we also announce that the continuation of these malicious acts will not affect the resilient spirit of political prisoners.

While expressing our happiness regarding the freedom of Ms. Hengameh Shahidi, along with our congratulations to her and her honorable family, we ask that the act of taking advantage of political prisoners ends. The legal rights of prisoners, including temporary leave, should not come with any conditions or pressures directing them to succumb to the cruel and immoral demands of prison officials. We regard such acts as added inhumane duress that is placed on political prisoners.

Along with our empathy for Ms. Hengameh Shahidi, who has for months endured horrible and harsh prison conditions with us, we understand some of her reasons for giving in to the demands of prison officials to build files against other prisoners. Mindful of the immoral system that is used, we hold the prison officials mainly responsible for her behavior, and we hope that at least they stay committed to their promise of not returning her to prison.

If you burn my body and sew it to a pole, Can you steal love for the motherland from my soul? - Ali Saremi, political prisoner

The families of political prisoners Ali Saremi and Reza Sharifi Boukani who have referred to the Revolutionary Court in Tehran several times inquiring on the status of their loved ones’ case files have not [to date] received a convincing response; instead, they were faced with rude reactions from the authorities. Court officials responded to the families by asking, “Why are they still alive? Their sentences should have been implemented by now.” The families were escorted out of the court.

Saremi and Boukani are both held in ward 4 of Rajai Shahr prison in Karaj, Iran. During the last few days, Intelligence agents attacked prisoners in ward 4 and confiscated some personal items belonging to the political prisoners, including the personal writings of Saremi and Boukani. These two political prisoners were then limited from accessing the public area of the prison, which consequently has caused their families to become more concerned.

63 year old Mohammad Ali Saremi was arrested in September 2007 for speaking at the memorial event in Khavaran cemetery for victims of the 1988 prison massacres. After enduring 26 months of solitary confinement, interrogations, and torture in Evin prison, a death sentence was delivered to him in prison on December 29, 2009 by branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court.

Saremi was transferred to Rajai Shahr prison on August 29, 2010. He was interrogated for disclosing intolerable prison conditions [to the public] and protesting against the lack of due process in regards to his death sentence.

Mahin Saremi, Ali Saremi’s wife, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, “Once we also went to see our son at Camp Ashraf [in Iraq] in 2005. A short time after our return we were arrested and my husband spent a year in prison. A few months later he was arrested on charges of participating in ceremonies commemorating the 19th anniversary of the mass executions of political prisoners in 1988. But I don’t know why he suddenly received the death sentence last year after the elections.”

Reza Sharifi Boukani is charged with “espionage” and “Moharebeh” (waging war against God). He was arrested by Intelligence agents on May 5, 2010 in Tehran. He remains detained in Rajai Shahr prison. He has been interrogated and tortured to make a false televised confession. Boukani is a Kurdish political prisoner.

Treasury Designates IRISL Front Companies and Directors ‎WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Treasury today announced the ‎designation of 37 front companies based in Germany, Malta, and Cyprus and five ‎Iranian individuals for being owned or controlled by, or acting for or on behalf of, ‎the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) and its affiliates. Today's ‎action, taken pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13382, targets IRISL's complex ‎network of shipping and holding companies and executives and further exposes ‎Iran's use of its national maritime carrier to advance its illicit weapons of mass ‎destruction (WMD) program and to carry military cargoes. ‎

‎"We will continue to expose the elaborate structures and tactics Iran uses to shield ‎its shipping line from international scrutiny so that it can continue to facilitate illicit ‎commerce," said Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Stuart ‎Levey. "This pattern of obfuscation is leading the private sector around the world ‎to refuse business with Iran rather than risk becoming involved in its nuclear and ‎missile programs." ‎Following its September 2008 designation by Treasury under E.O. 13382 for its ‎provision of logistical services to Iran's Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces ‎Logistics, the arm of the Iranian military that oversees its ballistic missile program, ‎IRISL has increasingly created and relied upon a series of front companies and ‎has engaged in deceptive behavior to assist efforts to evade the impact of ‎sanctions and increased scrutiny of its activities. Including today's action, ‎Treasury has designated nearly 70 IRISL front companies and affiliates and has ‎identified more than 100 ships as being the property of IRISL or its fronts. ‎

Pursuant to E.O. 13382 – which is aimed at freezing the assets of proliferators of ‎WMD and their supporters, thereby isolating them from the U.S. financial and ‎commercial systems – Treasury today designated:‎Fifteen shipping companies, each the registered owner of a vessel already on ‎Treasury's List of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN ‎List), as blocked property of IRISL, and 11 holding companies that own the ‎shipping companies. All of the holding companies and shipping companies are ‎based at the same address in Hamburg, Germany.